Want to know how a fast-growing e-commerce player like Little Wonderland professionalized its purchasing process and got a grip on unpredictable demand? In this case study, you will discover how Optiply helps strategically manage inventory, reduce time-consuming manual tasks and support omnichannel growth.

Yin Lu, founder and owner of Little Wonderland, and Bo Joosten, buyer, share their experiences on the challenges of inventory management within a growing e-commerce company. And they explain how they can work more strategically and better respond to trends and demand peaks with Optiply.

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The best skincare for everyone

Making the best skincare accessible to everyone is what drove Yin Lu to start Little Wonderland. An e-commerce adventure from home has since grown into an ambitious omnichannel organization. Little Wonderland is now one of the largest Korean skincare retailers in Europe.

Unplanned sales spikes challenge Little Wonderland

Especially in the years, Little Wonderland has taken a big step forward. The demand for skin care products has grown and the organisation's size has also increased considerably since its inception.

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Manual calculations

Founder Yin Lu: “In the early years, almost everything was done by hand and therefore extremely labour-intensive. Purchasing was based on manual calculations. We looked at what had been sold per order to plan new orders. As a result, we were constantly placing new orders. At that time we were still too small for a 'dedicated' purchaser. However, we soon felt we had to find a solution to improve our purchasing process.”

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Unplanned sales spikes

Purchaser Bo, who started at Little Wonderland six months ago, adds: “Even now, there are various challenges in our purchasing process. For example, the rise of TikTok. Products can suddenly go viral and cause a huge sales spike - a spike we did not purchase products for.

The same can happen via our wholesale channel and/or the recently opened store in Utrecht - sometimes the demand surprises us.”

Yin explains: “We import our products from Asia, mainly from Korea. This results in a delivery time of approximately six weeks. This makes a sudden peak in demand even more difficult.” In addition, Little Wonderland is growing faster than historical data shows at times. Yin indicates that this is a luxury problem, but also notes that unexpected demand peaks provide an additional challenge.

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Little Wonderland meets Optiply

Little Wonderland was already working with a dedicated website platform and a WMS system, but was urgently looking for a purchasing solution. Yin: “When we really started to grow, we came across Optiply as one of the Lightspeed integration options. There is also a link with our WMS system Picqer. That is an advantage because we arrange the logistics process completely 'in-house'.”

Little Wonderland has thought about fulfillment, but by keeping these tasks in their own hands, they can contribute to their way of packaging and maintain quality control.

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Strategic and time-saving solutions

Yin indicates that working with the Optiply app has freed up her agenda. “I always juggled my roles: purchasing, customer service, warehouse work and HR. Because of Optiply's automation, I can spend more time improving internal processes and, for example, onboarding new colleagues.”

Mapping product performance

Bo adds: “I'm glad I was able to start tracking product performance right from my start at Little Wonderland. Thanks to the available data in Optiply, I can easily collaborate with the marketing department, for example. These are things I certainly would not have gotten around to if I had to place purchaser orders manually.”

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Purchasing becomes more strategic

Bo continues: “With Optiply I can make my work as a purchaser more strategic. For example, by really working on our stock issue. Where we first placed large orders with suppliers, we now purchase smaller orders more often. For example, orders come in every month which makes us more flexible if a trend emerges and/or we see an increase in sales. With Optiply’s supplier feature, we get a notification per specific supplier when a monthly or quarterly order is due. That notification combined with real-time purchasing advice is great. I do not have to keep track of anything myself because the system alerts me automatically.”

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Solution when stockouts threaten

Yin: “What I also find very useful is the lost sales feature. Optiply automatically indicates that products must be reordered if stockouts threaten, even before it is on our purchasing agenda. This functionality triggers me to investigate and ask myself the question: 'Why do I have to order this product again?’”

The lost-sales function is an extra incentive for Yin to understand how the demand for Little Wonderland's products moves. Knowledge that she would never have had with a manual purchasing method.

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An improved and balanced stock

Yin indicates that manual checks are a thing of the past, that they have saved time and that the reliable Optiply data plays an important role in their growth. The insights that the app gives them about the stock are very important.

“The ABC categories have improved our stock management,” says Yin. Bo adds: “Thanks to the categorisation, we can balance the stock and focus on our best sellers (A category) and reduce C category products.”

Yin breaks in: “Remember, we deal with products with expiration dates, so accurate stock management is crucial for us.” Managing inventory is an important focus for Little Wonderland, also for the future.

Little Wonderland's omnichannel ambitions

Yin indicates that the first goal is to reduce the inventory size. “The size of our inventory has grown with us over the years but our goal is to reduce it. In addition, we want to focus on improving internal processes and working more efficiently as a team. That has everything to do with our plans for the future.”

Yin: “We want to add more stores in a select number of cities in the Netherlands and abroad. Omnichannel offers many opportunities to present our products to a larger audience and thus advise new customers about the importance of quality skin care.”

Bo: “That ambition means there is more than enough challenge for my purchasing role. The ultimate goal is a balanced stock that allows us to meet the demand of our customers in the best possible way - both online and in-store.”

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Ready for omnichannel growth thanks to Optiply

With Optiply, Little Wonderland has gained more control over its inventory and purchasing processes, making the company ready for further omnichannel growth. Yin indicates that the challenge in the short term will be to get all the systems right. “We want to make sure that everything is in place and running smoothly before we actually start working on the expansion.”

“What helps, in any case, is that we offer products in every price range that people use - and need - all year round. And, I know from experience that once you get used to quality skin care, you will not stop with it.”

Through smart data and automation, Little Wonderland tries to continue to respond flexibly to trends and demand peaks, and to prepare for future expansions.